tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53894924389074665882024-02-07T14:06:31.454+05:30Sri Lanka WalkA Travelers' eHandbook on Sri Lanka.Suresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-82847114628894093462014-05-01T17:37:00.002+05:302014-05-01T17:37:56.038+05:30Dawn at Kantale Reservoir.
Kantale reservoir was built by King Agbo-II in the 5th century. It can be reached along Kandy-Trincomalee Road (A6 highway) 45 kilometers from Habarana.
Kantale Reservoir spreads over 3,500 hectares, and holds water from River Mahaweli. It is surrounded by huge forest reserves, and also considered as an IBA (Important Bird Area).
At the dawn, scenery around Kantale reservoir is Suresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0Kantale Tank, Sri Lanka8.3673704 80.9843445999999868.2416934 80.822983099999988 8.4930474 81.145706099999984tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-1674459569424701392014-04-13T17:58:00.002+05:302014-04-13T18:20:44.905+05:30Dimbulagala: Over 7000 years in the making.
The rocks of Dimbulagala: believed to be the weapons facility of Ravana.
Dhumraksha, an uncle of King Ravana was believed to have lived on these rocks. He overlooked the sophisticated weapons facility built here by Ravana, where the weapons he used for long wars against his enemies were developed and stored for safety. Because of Dhumraksha, this rock came to be called as Dhumraksha-Giri, Suresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0Dimbulagala, Sri Lanka7.8593413 81.1030573000000467.8278823 81.062716800000047 7.8908002999999995 81.143397800000045tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-16618687255324905972014-04-02T08:14:00.000+05:302014-04-02T08:21:28.248+05:30Season of Robarosiya.
Sidewalk at Katugastota.
Kandy has gone pink once again. The season of Robarosiya flower has arrived. The breeze slightly shakes Robarosiya branches and makes the pink flowers rain down.
Kandy Lake Round.
The number of flowers in a tree are immense, you can barely see its green leaves.
George E. De Silva Park, Kandy.
In front of Sri Dalada Maligawa.
The city of Kandy and its Suresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0Kandy, Sri Lanka7.2905715 80.6337261999999557.1645705000000008 80.472364699999957 7.4165725 80.795087699999954tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-17241565450969296092014-03-18T18:53:00.001+05:302021-10-19T22:05:04.741+05:30Old Bridge of Katugastota.
River Mahaweli flows by the town of Katugastota, separating it from Kandy Town. The bridge over the river at this place connects the two towns. The other importance about this place is that it is the point where the borders of Ruhunu, Maya and Pihiti (the three ancient political divisions of Lanka) meet.
The old bridge of Katugastota was commissioned for the transportation of Sri Lanka on Suresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0Katugastota, Sri Lanka7.3333333 80.61666677.2703358 80.5359857 7.3963307999999994 80.6973477tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-40360374347798006122014-03-12T15:33:00.002+05:302014-05-12T11:37:02.554+05:30Walk by the Giritale Reservoir.
Morning at Giritale reservoir.
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Suresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0Giritale Wewa, Sri Lanka7.9926439 80.9124781000000447.9297459 80.831797100000045 8.0555419 80.993159100000042tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-61129248967254120662013-11-01T22:20:00.001+05:302013-11-04T09:57:22.625+05:30HOT SAND: An Adventurous Time in Saudi Arabia.Welcome back friends!
This time I'm writing, not something about Sri Lanka especially. It is about the book I started writing in 2004 while I was in Saudi Arabia, and finished in Sri Lanka in 2011. Saudi Arabia is a world of extremes. There you can see luxurious life and instant death, sandstorms and bitter cold, loud-mouthed but soft-hearted people, and mobile phones having Islamic prayers for Suresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0Sayhat Saudi Arabia26.475 50.04166669999995126.418150500000003 49.960985699999952 26.5318495 50.122347699999949tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-16286894345607482442013-08-27T15:48:00.002+05:302013-11-01T21:06:26.617+05:30Adisham Bungalow: Dream of a homesick Englishman.Well, I'm writing after quite a long vacation. This is actually something to read. It's about a mansion in Sri Lanka built by an Englishman on a land 5,000 feet above mean sea level. This mansion was famous among the villagers of Haputale by the nickname 'Laksha Bungalawa' (The Bungalow that took one hundred thousand rupees to build) about 80 years ago.
Sir Thomas Lister Villiers
Portrait ofSuresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0Haputale, Sri Lanka6.7677777999999993 80.9586110999999856.7520098 80.938441099999991 6.7835457999999988 80.978781099999978tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-62640599086698119092013-06-09T17:48:00.000+05:302013-07-01T15:28:27.629+05:30Bomburu Ella Falls: A Beauty in The Central Hills.
“Wake up guys!”
That was Gune, my batch mate at the English Teachers’ College, Peradeniya. Hetti (Jayathilaka Hettiarachchi) and I were at Gune’s sister’s home at Welimada, sleeping, when Gune shouted to wake us up at 6.00 am on 26th January 1998. That day our plan was to visit Bomburu Ella, a breathtakingly beautiful waterfall hidden in the jungles of Uva-Paranagama electorate.
View Larger Suresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0Boralanda, Sri Lanka6.8288889 80.8941667000000286.8131229 80.873996700000035 6.8446549 80.914336700000021tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-84043864266684905552013-06-06T00:05:00.001+05:302013-06-06T09:49:05.378+05:301998 at Kokkilai: A Tour That Was Impossible!
Thennamaramwadi fishing settlement at the Thissapura-end of the Kokkilai lagoon (1998).
It was 1998, and the war against LTTE was heated up. It was only two days after the LTTE blew up a vehicle bomb in front of the sacred Temple of the Tooth Relic, Kandy. I was on my way from Kandy, heading north, towards Padavi Sri Pura. That was the last Sinhala village before Welioya, which was bordering Suresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0Kokkilai Lagoon, Kokkilai Bird Sanctuary, Sri Lanka8.9841362 80.9373623000000188.8586672 80.77600080000002 9.1096052 81.098723800000016tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-14342165379737574002013-05-28T09:48:00.000+05:302013-05-28T09:48:56.332+05:30"Egg & Sausage Picnic": A Quick Recipe On the Go!This recipe was a kind of invention, a result of smart thinking what to make with some ingredients which were the only available things at the time. The fancy name was coined by Harin, my nine-year old son. Here's the recipe:
Bread slices being roasted...
You need...
One loaf of Sliced Bread.
Three (3) eggs.
Three (3) sausages.
A little chili powder or black pepper powder.
Some salt.
(One Suresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-68347212894440633352013-05-28T08:38:00.001+05:302013-06-06T09:54:13.196+05:30A Budget-traveler's Guide to PolonnaruwaHi friends!
I hope you are planning to visit Polonnaruwa next weekend. If your budget is a bit tight, you might be thinking of a way to overcome the situation. Don't worry. I too faced the same difficulties, but managed to balance everything successfully. Read this, and decide for yourself:
Polonnaruwa Moonstone
1.
Do not hire vehicles. You can rely on public transportation. There is a Suresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka7.9328569999999994 81.0080869999999327.8070464999999993 80.846725499999934 8.0586674999999985 81.16944849999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-6405155944238238602013-05-28T07:30:00.002+05:302013-05-28T07:50:05.346+05:30Little-known Things About Well-known Kataragama.
The Uva-Wellassa Rebellion
Sri Lanka becoming a British colony, and its first fight against the colonial rule; the Uva-Wellassa Rebellion, both occurred at the dawn of the 19th century. The period after Uva-Wellassa Rebellion seems to have been miserable at Kataragama, and Uva at large. Robert Brownrigg, the Governor of Ceylon visited Kataragama on April 5th 1819 while on his tour through Uva Suresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-65660424621980992882013-05-20T22:34:00.002+05:302013-05-27T21:14:13.087+05:30Rice, Lap, Wheel and Tea; a taste of Sri Lankan English.We Sri Lankans have a habit of shortening long words for ease of use. The latest of such ‘shortened’ word is ‘Anivah’, which is the curtailed form of the Sinhala word ‘Anivarya’, meaning ‘compulsory’. This shortening habit of the Sinhalese does not confine to curtailing seemingly difficult and long Sinhala words; they would happily drop out one word from the original two-word English terms as Suresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-40775152457075372982013-05-19T19:54:00.003+05:302013-05-20T22:00:07.874+05:30Thashayeni.
(By Vadivel Balendran)
The text you are about to read will be interesting, eye-opener and applicable to your life not because of its vocabulary, grammar or structure of sentences, but because the bondage between I and Mother Nature.
My motto being “Believe in Mother Nature she will never let you down”, Mother Nature has never let me down at any instance in my life. I am going to Suresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0Pidurutalagala, Piduruthalagala Forest Reserve, Sri Lanka7.0008333 80.77333329999999-18.5212012 39.464739299999991 32.5228678 122.08192729999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-64023574824718193752013-05-19T10:53:00.000+05:302013-05-19T18:33:31.144+05:30Galaha: A Day's Sightseeing.
A spectacular view of Galaha from top of a mountain in Loolkandura Tea Estate.
Galaha is a small town located among the hills of Sri Lanka's Central Province. It is about 30 kilometers from Kandy, and an ideal location for sightseeing reachable within a couple of hours drive from Kandy.
A view from Galaha Road.
To reach Galaha, you have to pass Galaha Junction which is at Peradeniya, andSuresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5389492438907466588.post-17267583650979142212013-05-12T22:20:00.002+05:302013-05-19T18:33:31.142+05:30The 10th Century Palace of King Parakramabahu.
The ruins of the palace of King Parakramabahu the Great standing in the citadel.
Polonnaruwa was the second kingdom of Sri Lanka. It was inhabited since the period of Anuradhapura kingdom. Agrabodhi-IV (673 – 689 AD) and Agrabodhi-VII (781 – 787 AD), Kings of Anuradhapura Kingdom, had palaces built in Polonnaruwa. Polonnaruwa had been the main area of paddy cultivation while Suresh Mohan Dharmaratnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15518871471446791092noreply@blogger.com0